The Love Stop: Man Proposes to Long-Lost Crush on School Bus Where They Met

by Inside Edition2:13 PM EDT, June 19, 2017

Playing The Love Stop: Man Proposes to Long-Lost Crush on School Bus Where They Met

The next stop forthis couple ismarriageafter a man proposed on the school bus where he had met his crush decades earlier.

Eric Cardwell, of Alabama, said he had a secret crush on Traci Self throughout middle and high school more than 30 years ago, but never had the courage to ask her out because she was a few years older.

“I just happened to look up on the bus one day and saw her get on and that was it," Cardwell told InsideEdition.com. "I was immediately taken. I kept it to myself. Two or three years went by and then we ended up in the same journalism class, but I was still thinking, ‘No, not gonna happen.'"

Cardwell said they graduated high school, married other people, and had children, but both of their marriages eventually ended in divorce.

Far left: Eric Cardwell, Circled:Traci Self

Cardwell and Self were both focused on raising their children when they happened to connect on Facebook two years ago. Cardwell decided to send his long-lost crush a message.

“It turned into days of constant messaging, which then turned into a first date,” Cardwell said. “Everything was at ease on our first date. We talked about on one hand we wished we’d done it sooner but on the other hand maybe we wouldn’t have appreciated it as much. I think this is the best time.”

Cardwell knew that he’d found the right one and so he wanted to do something special to make her his wife.

“I thought of a lot of different ways to propose but nothing felt right, so I thought about taking it full circle,” Cardwell said.

He tried finding the same bus they’d rode all that years but that turned out to be nearly impossible, so instead he rented a bus and pasted 1738, their original bus number, on the side.

In a video shared by Caters News, Cardwell is seen getting down on one knee as Self sits in one of the bus seats.